A Letter From Upper-West Region Ghana

“The Moringa Tree Project is a sustainable approach to combating poverty, malnutrition, and environmental degradation.
The trees provide social enterprise opportunities for rural women’s cooperatives schools, orphan homes and clinics because the fruits, leaves, and pods of these “miracle” trees are considered nutritional powerhouses. The tree is used for food, made into cooking oil, cattle feed, clarifies water, and can make biofuel to create enterprises that generate income for rural villagers.

To assist the 1,000 farmers, particularly from poor and disadvantaged families, to engage in
Moringa tree growing and increase for improved food security and income generation for the
farmers thus enabling the farmers to meet the costs of other farming activities, among others.

To promote awareness among the farmers of the value and importance of planting trees
(Moringa) for different purposes; how to raise and tend tree seedlings and ways of integrating
trees into farming systems through the production and dissemination of public awareness
materials.

To mobilize and assist the project beneficiaries to organize themselves into Farmers’ groups and a Community Association to manage and sustain the activities initiated under the project and
take advantage of the economies of scale for the purchase of farm inputs; processing, transportation and marketing of agricultural produce; increase their market share and facilitate better access to credit and other financial services.

To foster competitive marketing of locally produced Moringa seeds and leaves (including through training in harvest and post-harvest handling and quality control skills and technologies).

To facilitate farmers access to relevant information, including market prices.

Who will be involved?
Rural farmers will be the target beneficiaries. They struggle every day to combat a variety of societal issues, each an integral component to the healthy growth of communities. These issues include poverty, malnutrition, deforestation, land degradation, a lack of employment opportunities, and insufficient educational funding for vulnerable children.

Overall benefits
Moringa trees are: rich in nutrients higher in protein than soybean meal; drought resistant once established; used for household water purification; a source of edible oil, biofuel, and cattle feed.
The Moringa tree contains:
• All the essential amino acids
• 4 times the Vitamin A of carrots
• 7 times the Vitamin C of oranges
• 4 times the calcium of milk
• 3 times the potassium of bananas
• 3 times the iron of spinach
The trees provide a sustainable solution for malnutrition. By providing adequate nutrition for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers, children will realize their full intellectual and physical potential. Women’s groups use the trees to provide for their families and ensure a better future for their children.